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most employees and managers dread the performance appraisal process it is just simply not people's favorite time of year but it doesn't have to be that way I'm Sheri Harley I lead candid culture we're training and education firm helping organizations all over the world help their employees be more candid at work and feel more comfortable doing so we're going to spend about 15 minutes together and we're just going to talk about the performance appraisal process and have it be simple and clear and not painful in fact almost painless so first is this number one is to spend a little bit of time crafting and appraisal for your employees that is both detailed and specific I'm not saying spend a ton of time but invest enough that your employees feel that you cared enough to spend a little bit of time that will go a long way to helping your relationship be even stronger than it is now I suggest that both employees and managers keep a me file so employee you should keep a file for themselves where throughout the year they collect good feedback projects wins anything that they're proud of emails they received and they should just throw it in a folder and at the end of the year the employee should send that to you the manager and you can use that to help craft their appraisal you do not follow your employees around Lisa I'm hoping and assuming you don't if you follow your employees every day everywhere they go you probably need more to do and I doubt that that's true so you're not there all the time so you're going to need data right you're going to have your data but you also need their data and other people's data so number one ask your employees to keep a me file and collect their data on their performance at the end of the year you're also going to want to reach out to other people throughout the organization call your employees internal customers you can call the people they service internally you can call vendors you can call customers anyone that people work with directly closely and regularly and just ask how has John Smith perform this year what did you get that you needed what did you not get what did we do well and what could we do better you want to get something called a 360 point of view when you get your employees customers colleagues business partners vendors point of view you get a complete picture of their performance which is way more accurate than just your impressions because you're not there all the time once you have your feedback you have your employees feedback and you have a casual 360 by calling around you're ready to write the appraisal you want to be specific and clear and not over-the-top with data people cannot get better at 17 things they can't focus on more than let's say 2 or 3 so think about you like let's say it's January 1st and you are setting your New Year's resolutions and you're feeling optimistic so you're going to lose 30 pounds and you're going to go to grad school part-time you're going to buy a new house you're going to go on vacation twice you're going to read five classics and you're going to get promoted at work no you're not there's no one who can do all of that in one year and when the bar is set so high people peter out quickly and they do nothing and they get discouraged performance appraisals are actually really similar what are the three things that your employees did most and the best this year that are the most important that's what you want to focus on in your appraisal so what three things do your employees need to replicate that they did well that you want them to keep doing that is most important based on their goals and what's important to the organization next year focus on those three things then what are three things the employee did that he or she really should do differently either what area could he or she grow or develop meaning they've never done that it's a skill that they want to get or take on something they want to learn that's new or something that really needs to get corrected or fixed three things not more now I'm not saying you can't address more than three things in the appraisal but I want you to consider that people can only focus on a couple things at a time if you want your employees to be efficient effective get better keep doing the things they do well give them little things to focus on all the time you can always meet again next month or in 90 days or six months and add more the other thing is this I'm going to be honest I worked in corporate America for twelve years before I started my business and I was a driven type-a successful careerist and I did well and still I never had a performance appraisal where I didn't want to quit the next day it can be a very discouraging process and more so I think in please even if they hear ten good things that they did well and one thing that was negative we all know that we can home thinking about the negative so you want a process for your employees that they can really take in what you're saying and they feel encouraged and more engaged not discouraged I would suggest to do that that you really help people focus you point out the positive and you point out the negative which is often called constructive which is just a nice word for negative but people do need both but keep it simple and keep it pretty sick synced and short the other thing is this the best feedback is specific and I have to be candid most feedback I see is actually useless I call it Captain Crunch it's like popped children's breakfast cereal with milk it's like moving air around the room with a little noise mixed in so if you tell your employees they're doing well they had a great year they need to be more assertive or more aggressive they need to work harder then you can be more detail-oriented they need to be more complete they need to be more accurate they need to be more timely none of that is actually feedback that is buff right it's vague I call it an attribute like a descriptor blond hair short tall those are descriptions they're not actually feedback feedback is a description plus a verb meaning what did the person do the more specific the feedback the more helpful it is so when I know exactly what I did well I can replicate it when I know exactly what didn't go well I can change it but when I'm not sure what you're talking about I don't know what to do and all I do is get really really defensive human beings are going to get defensive when they get feedback regardless of how well it was delivered and how nice and how softly they will get less defensive when it's specific when I can see like almost like on a DVD or a video when I can see the event go by when you describe it to me so clearly that I can remember it like oh yeah you're right I was late that day I remember that I did turn that in late I did take a vacation day on the busiest day of the year I did wear something a little crazy in front of a customer I can remember it I'm not going to like hearing it but I'm going to be able to absorb it and I will get less defensive so you can't prevent your employees from being defensive when they get negative feedback we all get defensive I call that human but you can reduce their defensive nough stream lis specific to be specific you're again going to have to watch your employees performance and you're going to have to get feedback both from them and from other people and that can be a little time-consuming I'm going to recommend you do that throughout the year like I said so throughout the year just call your customers your internal customers and ask for feedback on your employees and talk about what you're getting throughout the year that's the ideal case the performance review process is called review because it should be the year in review it is not a preview it is not a trailer so ideally when you meet with your employees you should be talking about things you've already talked about so a good appraisal sounds something like this thanks for coming in today we're going to briefly review last year the year that's ending because we've had a lot of conversations about your performance you know what's working and what's not so we're going to wrap that up we're going to review it and then we're going to plan for next year in a really solid appraisal that's empowering and it's firing even you're going to focus a little bit on the past and a lot about the future now you can do that if you've been meeting with your people regularly and giving feedback and a lot of us have not let's just admit it we are busy we are human and we have our own jobs to do so sometimes we don't get to give feedback as often as frequently and as quickly as we would like so you're going to maybe be in the position where you're going to give feedback that's not a review fact the employee is going to be surprised and maybe a little frustrated because maybe it happened in January and you're addressing it in July or August that breaks trust so be careful how you do it you may want to say something like I've got some feedback for you I wish I'd given it to you sooner next year we're going to meet more regularly and I'm going to give you more regular feedback but for now I think it's important that you have this information you can do that but know that employees get a little suspicious like why didn't you tell me six months ago and they can break trust and they feel a little betrayed so be careful what you choose to address if a behavior performance has been happening over time and you haven't addressed it and it's frustrating to you you may want to just consider not addressing it during the appraisal if it's really a problem they're going to do it again no that sounds a little crazy I call that a missed opportunity if it's an issue they're going to do it again just watch for it not like a stalker but just pay attention when it happened to address it so so far we have gather feedback throughout the year if you can gather feedback from the employee themselves and also from their internal or external customers make some notes be extremely specific more specific the more actionable the more helpful the more trust you'll build because specificity builds authenticity and trust vague does not you're not going to write captain crunch you're going to write behaviors so rather than be more timely you could say something like turn everything in when it's due or before rather than produce more accurate work you could say check your work be sure to spell check have somebody proofread and make sure that things are error-free before you turn them in if you want to say to someone they have a bad attitude that's going to create a lot of sensitivity and a lot of defense in this so you could say something like you typically look unhappy at work your founding come throw stuff around you're a sire and it's creating an atmosphere in the office that's a little bit negative my recommendation is if you're upset at work just take it outside and take a walk around the block more specific less defensive more helpful now the employees should also participate in their appraisal so I'm going to suggest you do something called a self appraisal a self appraisal is a time for the employee to sit down think about his or her year and performance and take some notes they should write things like what went well what didn't go well if they could do something over again this year what would they do what were they disappointed with but get employees thinking about their year because the more they think about it the more accountability they're going to take they're in charge of their performance their success in their career not you and that takes some of the weight off you also I don't like to be surprised so if I'm going to sit down and have an appraisal and my employee thinks they're a rock star and I think we should maybe possibly move them along and get rid of them that is not going to be a fun conversation I don't want to be surprised by that so I have their self appraisal asking them what they think their rating should be with comments that are specific I know what I'm walking into it also allows me to embed some of the employees self feedback into my appraisal of them which feels more fair to them you also after you capture your feedback you want to schedule a good amount of time to meet with your employee minimum of 30 minutes maybe an hour schedule a time that's convenient for both of you not on a Friday or not right before a holiday or vacation because people do get defensive with feedback and they need to be able to go home think about it process come back and ask questions so schedule your appraisals may be middle of the week an hour when both of you have time now the biggest mistake I see in delivering an appraisal is the manager does all the talking and the employee does all the listening and then goes home and complains to their cat about how unfair their appraisal was I recommend that you have a dialogue so here's my suggestion deal with one topic at a time after you give the feedback on one subject stop talking and ask the employees point-of-view hey how does that land with you what do you think and let the person talk and then you go on to the next topic every conversations and negotiation the more your employee participates the better the conversation will go it will feel more fair and you will learn something about the employee so one topic discuss another topic discuss next topic discuss so I often sit and I observe my my clients give appraisals often when they need help or they're a little nervous and what I see is the manner goes talk talk talk talk talk and they often read the appraisal your employee can read don't read them the appraisal it's very impersonal it's hard not to if it's in front of you right you're going to pick it up and you're going to read it so maybe send the appraisal to the employee in advance let him or her read it and then just talk through it but don't read it they know how to read and it's not personal here's the last part this may sound a little funny but I really believe this the way you manage the appraisal process can build and strengthen your relationship can actually build rapport when you spend time drafting a really complete and thorough appraisal and a fair appraisal that's balanced just as many positives as negatives and not too many of either and you spend the time to deliver it and you're thoughtful in your delivery you have an exchange and a dialogue you actually build your relationship and employees want to work for people who have their back the more time you spend in the more thorough and real you are with them and authentic the more you build your relationship so in tight economies we can't always promote people or rotate people we can't give people more money but we can be someone who's great to work for it's always hard to get negative feedback but the truth is we want it because without it we don't learn and we don't grow so I'm going to encourage you to be candid and have some courage powerful managers have courage and they're candid and employees really want to hear what you have to say a good appraisal focuses on the positive and the constructive we tend to kind of wait things on the constructive because we expect things to go well again I'm going to suggest that you're balanced give people time after the appraisal to think about it and invite them to come back to you with questions people need to go home and have their process I hope this has been useful for you good luck this year with your appraisals